CB360 Week-12 Composite Baseball Rankings (2014)

Virginia remains atop CB360’s exclusive Composite National Rankings, which now include 10 elements in the formula (listed at the bottom of this page). Oregon State has climbed three spots to No. 2, while Louisiana (Lafayette) and Florida State have remained in the third and fourth spots. After dropping its series against Long Beach State, Cal Poly has slipped from second to fifth in the CNR.

Florida has moved up a spot to sixth in the CNR, followed by three more SEC teams: South Carolina (up from #7), LSU (#9 the previous week) and Ole Miss, which is back in the top-10 after being 12th a week ago. Preseason top-10 team Indiana has slipped all the way down to 33rd by midseason, but the Hoosiers have come all the way back and currently are 10th in the CNR (up from 15th).

The two teams that fell out of the top-10: Washington (#6 to #11) and Texas (#8 to #15). Surging TCU currently is 17th in the CNR, three weeks after being at the bottom of the top-50 (49th).

Three teams earlier this season reached the top-10 for the fist time in the history of the CNR: Louisiana-Lafayette, Cal Poly and Washington.

These five teams slipped outside of the CNR top-50: (30) Arkansas, (39) Maryland, (40) VCU, (48) Wake Forest and (50) Seton Hall. Conversely, five teams that were in the CNR top-50 earlier this season are back in the top-50: (38) USC, (42) Sam Houston State, (43) Nebraska, (44) Texas A&M and (49) Duke.

Teams making biggest moves within the top-50 include: Mercer (#43 to #29), West Virginia (#46 to #34), Arizona State (#38 to #27), Bryant (#45 to #35), UC Irvine (#41 to #32) and UNLV (#33 to #26).

Virginia is the fifth team to hold the top spot in the CNR this season, following preseason #1 Cal State Fullerton (now #35), along with Florida State, South Carolina and Louisiana (Lafayette).

The current top-50 includes 10 SEC teams (six of them among the top-20, but none top-5), plus seven ACC, five Big 12, five Pac-12 and four Big West. Other conference currently represented in the CNR top-50: three each from American Athletic, Missouri Valley and Mountain West … two each from the Big Ten and Conference USA … and one each from the Atlantic Sun, Big South, Northeast, Southland, Sun Belt and West Coast.

Six of the teams in the CB360 preseason top-10 now find themselves outside of the top-10, including preseason #8 NC State dropping out entirely of the top-50. Current #28 Mississippi State opened the season at #4. Cal State Fullerton was the CB360 preseason #1 (now 47th). Preseason #10 Vanderbilt currently is 12th and Oregon (preseason #9) now is 20th. (The only reseason top-10 teams still currently in the top-10 are Oregon State, Virginia, Florida State and Indiana).

Other teams that have dropped out of the CNR top-50 so far in 2014:
• North Carolina State (#8 preseason, #10 after week-1, then 9–7–6–13–24–34–39–47)
• UCLA (#11 preseason and after week-1, then 14–11–22–20–22–23–33–38)
• North Carolina (#13 preseason & after week-1, then 17–15–13–9–21–34) – has returned to current top-50
• Kansas State (#18 preseason, #27 after week-1, #28 after week-2)
• TCU (#22 preseason & after week-1, #20 after week-2, #26 after week-3, #32 after week-4, #35 after week-5) – back in top-50
• Texas A&M (#25 preseason, then 23–22–37–30-43–38 after week-7) – has returned to current top-50
• Alabama (#26 preseason … #25 after week-1 … #26 after week-2 … #38 after week-3) – has returned to current top-50
• Arizona (#28 preseason, #29 after week-1 & week-2)
• East Carolina (#29 preseason, #32 after week-1, #34 after week-2)
• Arkansas (#30 preseason, #28 after week-1, #25 after week-2, #29 after week-3, #44 after week-4)
• Florida Atlantic (#31 preseason, also after week-1 & week-2, #33 after week-3, #39 after week-4)
• San Diego (#33 preseason, #36 after week-1, then 37–27–31–21–47–46–27–27)
• Oklahoma (#34 preseason, #40 after week-2, #50 after week-2, #44 after week-5, then 34–30–37–50)
• Georgia Tech (#35 preseason, #38 after week-1 & week-2, later #31 after week-7) – has returned to current top-50
• UNC Wilmington (#36 preseason, #37 after week-1, #36 after week-2)
• Western Carolina (#38 preseason, #48 after week-1, #44 after week-2, #45 after week-3)
• Nebraska (#39 preseason & after week-1, #35 after week-2 … #45 after week-9) – has returned to current top-50
• New Mexico (#40 preseason, #50 after week-1, #45 after week-2) – has returned to current top-50
• Wichita State (#41 preseason, #46 week-2, #47 after week-2)
• Stanford (#42 preseason and #47 after week-1)
• Coastal Carolina (#43 preseason)
• Liberty (#45 preseason) – has returned to current top-50
• UNLV (#46 preseason and #34 after week-1) – has returned to current top-50
• Mercer (#46 preseason, #41 after week-1 & week-2, #50 after week-3) – has returned to current top-50
• Sam Houston State (#46 preseason, then 41–41–25–24–19–44 and 43 after week-7 … 45 after week-9) – has returned to top-50
• Washington State (#49 preseason and #41 after week-1)
• North Florida (#50 preseason and #48 after week-1)
• Baylor (#49 after week-2, #49 after week-5, #36 after week-6)
• Tennessee Tech (#42 after week-3
• USC (#39 after week-2, #42 after week-3) – has returned to current top-50
• Pepperdine (#34 after week-4) – has returned to current top-50
• UC Irvine (#35 after week-4) – has returned to current top-50
• Fresno State (#23 after week-3, #37 after week-4)
• California (#40 after week-3, #38 after week-4)
• Georgia Southern (#41 after week-4)
• Memphis (#39 after week-3, #36 after week-4 and week-5)
• College of Charleston (#30 after week-3, #47 after week-4, #47 after week-5)
• Ohio State (#45 after week-6)
• Creighton (#50 after week-6)
• Auburn (#37 after week-5, #23 after week-6, #31 after week-7)
• Seton Hall (#35 after week-3, then 33–26–29 and #37 in week-7)
• UAB (#46 after #4 and #47 after week-7)
• Duke (#49 after week-7) – has returned to current top-50
• West Virginia (#40 after week-7, #44 after week-8) – has returned to top-50
• Kansas (#32 after week-3, #42 after week-4, #31 after week-5, #45 after week-8)
• Florida International (#48 after week #2, then 28–26–39–28–39 and #47 after week-8)
• Illinois State (#48 after week-8) – has returned to current top-50
• Wake Forest (#50 after week-8)
• Georgia (#46 after week-9)

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: Teams receive points based on their standings in each poll/rating/projection (60 pts for #1; 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB) and the various RPI-type ratings, the CNR adjusts to reward teams that have larger margins in the voting/point totals (whereas two teams with nearly the same voting-point total will be closer in the CNR allotment for that poll). Note that strength-of-schedule typically is factored into RPI formulations … thus the actual SOS numbers only are used early in the season (SOS are not used in the CNR when RPI already are in the mix). For the NCAA field projections, teams are awarded CNR points based on their respective seedings, “last in” and “last out,” etc.

The polls/ratings/projections are averaged, with 40 points typically then added to each total in order to yield the 100-point benchmark. Early in the season (projected SOS) and late in the season (final-10 games), a maximum bonus/penalty of 0.3 (SOS) or 0.5 points (final-10) is factored into the formula (in that case, 39.7 or 39.5, rather than 40, is added to the poll/rating/projection avg.).